What Age do you Breed?

I'm just coming back from a long break and it's been a long time since I have bred horses. I believe I used to breed at 13 and 18 but... it's a little fuzzy. What ages do you all breed at, and what's the length of the "cooldown" period for a mare?

I generally do 15 and then 17. I won't breed a horse under 15 :)

i thought there was a confo penalty for breeding under 15 but still i breed from ages 17-20 depending on my lines and if i need to find a stud or not c:

I breed at age 18, 19 and 20. Keep the best foal, sell one if the quality is good and cull those that don't make the grade.

It is the first time that I try this approach instead of just keeping the foal from the last breeding and breeding a foal to sell when I need the cash.
I am pleased with the result but all those foals take up tons of space and culling them off is a long process. I miss the delete button...

I breed at 16, 18, and 20. Keep the best one and sell the other two

I put my horses up for public breeding at 18, and breed for myself at 19 and 20. I keep the foal with the best confo out of the two, and sell the other one. However if the horse I am breeding doesn't have a match, then I wait until age 20 to breed them with an outside stud/brood.

Last day of 18, Last day of 19, Last day of 20. I keep all.

If I am only breeding for me, I breed the last day of 20. I breed at 19 if I am going to sell one. 

I havent bres yet but plan to do so at 19 and 20. I believe cool down for a mare is 1 week and there is not 1 for stallions. 

Earlyist I breed is fourteen and I have a two week cool down. So for mares a max of four foals, but for my bigger herds I'm breeding them older than fourteen to reduce my herd without selling them extras to outside lines.

if i only cared about stats and planned on keeping the foal for myself, i’d breed at 20 (ages tomorrow)

some of my breeds i also bred for conformation or color, so i occasionally breed from ages 3 up. 

also @Madoka, there is no conformation penalty for young breeding :)

Age 20 ages tomorrow most times and sometimes use a breed again solution on the mare to breed again if I am not satisfied with confo of the first foal. 😉

One is kept, the other one is either sold, or put into my Open Breeding division; especially if it is from one of my foundation pairs.

Last edited on 2017-12-24 at 06:45:08 by ❄️ Snow Feather ❄

I'm not currently breeding, but the ideal age for breeding is different depending on what your goal is.  It takes 7 days from when your mare is bred before it will be ready to breed again, but you can breed a stallion as many times as you like without a cooldown.

To get the highest stats, breed the day before your horse turns 21 (the last possible day).  To get the highest stats possible but have multiple foals, count back from that point one year per extra foal you want.  For example if you want three foals, breed the first one on the day before your horse turns 19, the next one on the day before your horse turns 20, and the third on the day before your horse turns 21.

To raise your herd's conformation as quickly as possible, breed the day your horse turns 3, and continue to breed until you get a foal that exceeds its parents average conformation, and keep only that foal.

To get a foal with a specific color, start breeding early enough that you will have a good chance of getting that color, and keep breeding the horse every year until you get that color.

For sales, many people prefer to buy a horse from parents that have been bred later in life, and that have very few foals, but you can still breed as early and as often as you want.  You don't have to meet anyone else's goals, only your own.

Generally 19 years (and ages tomorrow) and 20 years (and ages tomorrow). If there is something specific I want from a horse, I’ll breed a third time, starting at 18 years. The reason most players breed their horses this late, is to get foals with the highest possible stats.

It happens that I breed younger horses. As I aim to breed performance horses, gained stats are of less concern to me than those they are born with.